Re: compiler bugs

Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@aol.com>
Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:56:16 +0200

          From comp.compilers

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From: Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettrich1@aol.com>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:56:16 +0200
Organization: Compilers Central
References: 09-04-072
Keywords: errors
Posted-Date: 28 Apr 2009 14:50:36 EDT

Sid Touati schrieb:


> How can a simple programmer detect a bug in a compiler ? is there some
> well known verification techniques ?


The most general method:


Reduce the code, where you observed an possible compiler bug, until you
have a small program to reproduce the error. Then give that program to
the compiler writers.


The most sophisticated method:


Use an decompiler to re-create the source code from the executable, and
search for differences. A decompiler may find erroneous machine code
itself, when the code is not reducible to high-level statements and
expressions.


There exist many other methods in between, like inspecting the
disassembled source code for obvious errors. This is what a decompiler
will do automatically.


A simple method is using another compiler, or other optimization
options, to find out different behaviour of the executables. But this is
a weak method, sensitive to uninitialized variables, wild pokes and
other coding errors.


DoDi



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